Triathlon, running, adventure races, and bike rides

Bikeapalooza
2011, August 2nd-9th, 2011. Anthony and I did seven days of
riding around Yellowstone park, logging over 600 miles through three
states, and seeing some of the most scenic vistas the US has to
offer. Here's a full report.

2010

Victoria Marathon,
October 10th, 2010. This was the big race: I was trying to qualify
for the Boston Marathon. My cutoff (for M35-39) was 3:15:59, and I
pulled it off, coming in at 3:14:47! The first 20 miles went very
well, averaging around 7:14 min/mile and a target finish of 3:09.
But, I started to really suffer over the last 6 miles, cracking up a
tough hill at mile 24 and slowing down by nearly a minute per mile.
In the end, my average pace was 7:23, and I was very relieved to hit
the finish line. I placed 160th overall out of 2,635 runners (and
2,559 finishers), putting me 148th out of 1,417 men and 29th out of
214 in my age group. Here's my race data, a
picture of me
on the run, and the race histogram. I
also wrote up a more detailed race report. My
friends Anthony and Yvonne had great races as well, and also
qualified! Boston, here we come...

Super Jock n' Jill
Half Marathon, September 6th, 2010. The race went amazingly
well. My coach wanted me to run 7:10 min/miles, but I felt super
strong, and ended up averaging 6:52 min/mile, finishing in 1:31:03.
(Plus, if a volunteer hadn't misdirected me and cost me a minute, I
think I would have cracked 1:30:00!) Overall, I was 122nd out of
985 runners. Here's my run
telemetry, the histogram of
finish times, and a photo of
me running. Perfect confidence booster for the Victoria
marathon next month!

Vancouver Half
Ironman, July 4th, 2010. I finished the race with another
PR of 5:07:48, which placed me 69th out of 241 starting athletes,
and 11th out of 32 in my age group. (Though, the run was almost a
mile short, so compensating, this was more like a 5:14:00
half-ironman.) My swim was fine, my bike was strong at 19.93mph
average, and my run was great, coming in at 1:34:08 over the 12+
mile course. It was a pretty competitive race; the average
finishing time was just under 5:30. Here's my bike
telemetry, my run
telemetry, and the histogram
of finishers. Yvonne and Anthony were both at the race, and
both finished very strong. This was Anthony's first half-iron, and
he kicked butt with a 5:35:18. Here's a photo of me and
Anthony after the race, Yvonne coming
into the finish chute, me on the
bike, and me on the
run.

Cascade's
Edge olympic distance, June 19th, 2010. A very fast race
for me. The water temperature was an inhumane 52 degrees, instead
of the expected 65, so the race director cut the swim to 800m
instead of the full 1500m. My swim was slower than I wanted --
16:56 (74th out of 174) -- but I felt solid on it. I flew on the
bike, averaging 20.6 mph and 219 watts, coming in at 1:12:14 (55th).
I had the best run of my life, finishing the 6 miles in 41:46, a
6:58 min/mile pace, good for 21st out of the 174 racers. Overall, I
finished in 2:18:52, or 47th place. Here's my bike
telemetry and run
telemetry, and the histogram
of finishers. Ruben and Anthony both did the race as well, and
had great days. Here are some photos: Anthony
finishing, Ruben
finishing, Anthony
post-race, Ruben
post-race, and me post-race.

Ironman
St. George, May 1st, 2010. I hit an Ironman PR! This was
the inaugural running of this race, and many who were there think it
may toughest ironman course in North America. In spite of this, I
finished strong, in a time of 13:57:55. Out of the 1,878 athletes
that started, 241 did not finish. I placed 861st overall out of the
1,636 finishers. Finally, I was able to do something I've wanted
for quite some time: I ran (most of) the marathon, and finished the
day feeling strong and with leftover energy. Here's my bike
telemetry and my run
telemetry, as well as the histogram of
finishers. (Note how the histogram is lopped off on the right;
that's the 17 hour cutoff, which killed a few hundred potential
finishers.) Finally, here's a detailed race
report.

Daffodil
Classic Century, April 18th, 2010. Today Ruben and I linked
together the 104 mile
Daffodil classic century ride with an 8.25 mile
run to turn today into a monster brick training day. It was a
spectacular spring day, with the sun shining and perfect views of
Mt. Rainier. We pulled pretty hard on the ride, averaging a bit
over 17 mph, coming in at 6:03:23. The run was steady at an 8:39
min/mile average, right in the range I'll need for St. George in
two weeks. Solid day, a real confidence boost.

Oceanside
70.3, March 27th, 2010. Another PR! I finished in
5:23:45, which is a 15 minute personal best for me in a
half-ironman. Somehow, I went slower than usual on the swim
(38:47, whereas I expected 35 minutes). But, I absolutely flew on
the bike, coming in at
2:50:47, or 19.7 mph over the 56 mile ride. And, my
half-marathon was the best I've done yet in a race, at 1:45:44 (an
8:04 min/mile pace). Huge success! A great confidence booster
for the St. George full ironman coming up in a month. I finished
597th out of 2,142 finishers, and 109th out of 317 racers in my age
group (male 35-39). Believe it or not, I placed high enough to get
a slot to the Clearwater championships, but stupidly, I didn't hang
around to claim it, as I figured there was no way I'd be in
contention. Here's the histogram of
finishers, and a photo
of me on the bike leg.

Magnusson series
10km run, March 20th, 2010. Anthony and I did a solid brick
workout by first doing a a hard paced
1:38:33 ride followed by the Magnusson 10km
race. The race was small, with about 35 people in it. It was 4
laps, and we decided to hold our heart rate steady between 150 and
160bpm for the first 3 laps, and then floor it for the last lap.
Overall, we came in at 46 minutes and 2 seconds, giving us an
average pace of 7:22 min/mile. For the last mile we did a 6:56
min/mile split, and ran in together in 11th place out of 35
finishers. Here's the obligatory
histogram of finishers.

2009

Lake Stevens
70.3, August 16th, 2009. This was a half-iron distance
race, at the end of my season. The swim and bike were solid, except
for the squirrel that jumped in front of me on the bike. (Luckily,
I didn't go down. Unluckily, the squirrel didn't get up.) The run
was another story; I was fit and had the energy to go hard, but both
legs locked up with cramps for 10 of the 13.1 miles, costing me
almost 20 minutes on the run. I'm happy with my fitness, and ready
to take a month or two off before spinning up base building for the
2010 season!. Overall, I pulled a 6:02:22 race, putting me at 470
out of 875 finishers, and 88th out of 117 in my age group. My swim
was 37 minutes flat, my bike was 3:05:35 (18.1 mph average), and my
run was a painful 2:14:16 (10:15 min/mile pace). Next year,
Oceanside is up in late March, and I will have my revenge!! Here's
a picture of me on the bike
leg, and a picture of me near the end
of the run Also, here's the histogram with
my finishing position.

Seafair sprint
triathlon, July 19th, 2009. This race consisted of a half
mile swim, a 12 mile bike ride, and a 3.1 mile run. I somewhat
botched the swim; I gunned too hard to get in front of a crunch of
swimmers, blew up my heart rate, and had to sit up for a minute to
recover. But, the ride and run were very fast. My swim time was
16:35 (779th out of 1454), my bike time was 35:20 (200th out of
1454, a 20.3 mph pace), and my run time was 21:08 (132nd out of
1454, a 6:48 min/mile pace). Overall, I was 216th in the race, or
31st out of 137 in my age group. Here's the histogram with
my finishing position.

Beat the Bridge
8K, May 17th, 2009. This was a fast 5 mile running race,
but with a massive 4,576 participants. I went out hard from the
start, and kept a 6:42 minute per mile pace, and finished in 33:33.
I was the 231st finisher out of 4576, or 27th out of 289 in my age
group! Here's the histogram
with my finishing position.

Oceanside
70.3, April 4th, 2009. My best race yet; I finished in
5:38:16, which is a 13 minute personal best for the half-ironman
distance. Oceanside has a fairly protected swim in the harbor, a
very fast first half of the cycling leg (tailwind and flat), but a
pretty challenging second half. The run is very flat, along the
Strand, a road hugging the ocean and beach. My splits were a 36:45
swim, a 2:55:55 bike, and a 1:56:48 run. I was confident and
aggressive in the swim, and my bike ride was really fast (at least,
for me -- I averaged 19.1mph). The first half of the run was solid,
but I really slowed in the second half. Overall, very satisfying
for my first race of the new season! Here's the histogram
with my finishing position.

2008

Haleakala ascent, November 11th, 2008. Sunny and I were
on Maui for Paul's wedding, and I got the chance to cycle up the
Haleakala volcano. This was a 35 mile, 10,200 foot ascent --
apparently the largest paved ascent in the world! It took me about
6 hours to make it up; fortunately, a local rider from the Maui
Cyclery (Matt) went up with me, and was great motivation and
support. Here's the elevation
profile, a route
map, and some images of me and
Matt at the
summit. We started at the Maui Cyclery store, and finished at the
summit. Marion and Bob also took a whack at the ascent, making it
to about 4000 feet.

Ironman Canada 2008,
August 24th, 2008. After a nervous and slow first 15 minutes, I
really picked up the pace on the swim, and finished the leg with
strength. The bike was fast -- a PR for me -- though I had a
nutrition bonk partway up the climb to Yellow Lake. The run was
terrible, as usual, and I crumbled horribly, running only 5-6 miles
of the marathon, and walking the rest. Nonetheless, I finished the
race with a PR of 14:48:34. Here's a YouTube video
of me running into the finish chute, late, late at night (and a local, mp4
version).

Lake Stevens
70.3, July 6th, 2008. Another strong, sub-six-hour race. I
came in at 5:56:26, placing me 480th out of 881 finishers, 374th out
of 580 males, and 76th out of 111 males in my 35-39 age division.
My time was just 30 seconds slower than the average time for the
race -- close to cracking the top half! I had my first ever bike
flat during a race; took about 8 minutes to do the tube swap.
Happily, I had a very strong sub-two-hour half marathon (1:55),
which kept me under 6 hours. Here's the histogram with
my finishing position, a photo of me on my bike, and a
photo of me running.

Shawnigan
Lake 70.3, May 25th, 2008. Yvonne, Celina and I did this
race just north of Victoria on Vancouver Island. It was my best
race yet -- I cracked the 6 hourmark for this half-iron distance
event, coming in at 5:50:39! I had a solid swim (36:40), a really
fast bike ride (2:58:57), and a somewhat weak run at 2:09:36. I was
on track for a sub-2hr run, but ran out of steam with 4 miles to go.
It was a small but competitive field; I placed 63rd out of 94
participants. Of the many strong people participating, most notable
was perhaps Jasper Blake, the Ironman Canada 2006 men's winner.
Here's the histogram
with my finishing position.

Oceanside
70.3, March 29th, 2008. Nick and I headed down to
Oceanside, just outside of San Diego, to do this half-ironman. It
was Nick's first ever triathlon, and my first of the season. I'd
been training hard, and it paid off: I came in at my personal best
of 6:14:45, including a fast 3:09:08 on the bike. Overall, I was
1,160th out of 1,958 racers, placing me in the 39th percentile.
Here's the histogram
with my finishing position. I cramped up on the run and went very
slowly, so there is still a lot of room for improvement! Splits:
41:27 on the swim (too slow), 5:46 t1, 3:09:08 bike, 4:19 t2, and
2:14:05 on the run.

2007

Ironman World
Championships, Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, October 13th, 2007. I
was lucky enough to win a lottery slot to this year's Ironman
Triathlon world championships! This was an incredible adventure; my race writeup is
here. Between the heat, the winds, and a seriously bruised and
blistered foot, I barely finished this race. But, I did finish in
15:44:06, putting me 1624th out of 1787 racers -- that's the third
percentile! Here's the histogram with my
finishing position.

Lake Stevens
70.3, July 8th, 2007. A half-ironman triathlon. Pretty
slow race for me; I was running with an injured achilles tendon, and
so I walked the majority of the run. Overall, I came in at 6:36:35.
Here's the histogram
with my finishing position. I was 631st out of 766 racers.

Issaquah
Triathlon, June 2rd, 2007. This was a sprint triathlon,
with a quarter mile swim, a 15 mile bike, and a 3 mile run. Out of
400 men, I finished 124th. In total, I was 155th out of 760
finishers, and 30th out of 82 in the male 30-34 age group. I was
pleased with the race: I was fast in the swim, moderate in the bike,
and very fast on the run (sub seven minute miles). Here's the histogram with
my finishing position, and the full race result
PDF file.

2006

Utah cycling
odyssey, June 16-21, 2006. Paul and I took a week to cycle
through the mountains and desert of Utah. We started at Cedar City,
and rode 79 miles on the first day over the mountains, ending up at
Bryce Canyon. Day 2 was a 75 mile ride through Tropic, Cannonville,
and Escalante, ending at Boulder town. Our plan from there was to
cross the desert and end up at Moab, but the heat was so intense we
decided to backtrack instead, fearing heatstroke on a monster 120
mile day through the desert. So, we rode back to Cannonville on day
3 (I did in fact get mild heatstroke that day!) and up to Bryce
Canyon on day 4, and then rented a car to go to Moab for some
mountain biking on slickrock and rafting down the Colorado river.
Here's a set of photos
from the ride.

Issaquah
Triathlon, June 3rd, 2006. This was a sprint triathlon,
with a quarter mile swim, a 14.5 mile bike, and a 3.5 mile run. The
course was fast; mostly a flat ride hugging the shore of Lake
Sammmamish. Out of 416 men, I finished 118th. In total, I was
143rd out of 771 finishers, and 29th out of 81 in the male 31-34 age
group. I lagged a little in the swim, but my bike ride and run
where both really fast; I was constantly passing people from earlier
waves, and at most two or three people passed me. Here's the histogram with
my finishing position.

Big Climb 2006,
March 19, 2006. A lung-popping race up the stairwell of the
Columbia Center in downtown Seattle, consisting of 69 flights of
stairs, 1,311 steps, and 788 feet of vertical elevation. I finished
in a pretty fast 11 minutes and 25 seconds, putting me at 154th out
of 1385 racers; here's the histogram
with my finishing position.

2005

Seattle Escape
from the Rock Triathlon, September 11, 2005. This was a
sprint triathlon (a 1/2 mile swim off of Mercer Island in Lake
Washington, an 11 mile bike ride out and back over the I-90 bridge
express lanes, then a 2.5 mile hilly run). I finished in 1:24:39,
putting me 118th out of 282 men, 17th out of 43 in my age group, and
148th out of 571 overall competitors. Here's the histogram of
my results.

Vineman Half
Ironman July 31st, 2005. I got my butt kicked in this race.
I finished in 7:39:05, a full hour slower than the last time I did
the race. My swim was good -- 42:36, only 18 seconds slower than
2004, but my bike slipped to 3:33:43 (17 minutes slower) and my run
was more of a walk than a run, at 3:10:37 (compared to 2:22:18 last
year). A bit of a wake-up call -- time to get training!

2004

Ironman Canada
2004, August 29, 2004. This was my second Ironman Canada,
and I finished in 14:54:38, an improvement of 31:42 over my first
Ironman. I was still near the back (I finished 1753rd out of 2056
official finishers). The swim and the bike both went very well,
though I shuffled most of the run.

Beaver Lake
Triathlon, August 14, 2004. A sprint distance triathlon
(1/4 mile swim, 13.8 mile bike, 4.3 mile run) in Sammamish; this was
a good shake-out to figure out what I needed to work on over the
last week of preparations for Ironman. My bike ride felt totally
solid, but my swim was shaky and my legs would work on the first two
miles of the run. Nonetheless, I finished in 1:37:54, which put me
in the top half of the race. Here is a histogram showing my
position relative to the rest of the field: I was near the
median, though each minute I shaved off would have put me ahead of
20 more competitors.

Vineman Half
Ironman, August 1, 2004. A very fun course - a river swim,
an extremely flat ride, and a half marathon run through the
vineyards. My swim and bike times were pretty decent, but my run
was a snail's pace. Overall, I placed 253rd out of 288 males 30-34,
979 out of 1183 males, and 1303 out of 1692 overall finishers. My
final time was 6:32:44.2.

Whidbey Island
Half-Marathon, April 4, 2004. This was a really hilly run
course, and I was underprepared. The first half went great, but I
really slowed down in the second half, dropping from about an 8
minute/mile pace to almost 10 minutes/mile; my overall pace was 8:54
minutes/mile for a final time of 1:56:34. In the end, I placed 39th
out of 59 runners in the male 30-34 age group, 174th out of 313 male
runners, and 249th out of 748 total runners.

2003

2003 Seattle
Marathon, November 30, 2003. I did the full marathon (26.2
miles), finishing in 4:11:44. This was a fairly slow pace; I did
the first half marathon in 1:50:54 (8 minute 27 second miles), but
slowed down to 2:20:51 (10 minute 45 second miles) for the second
half. My time put me 954th out of 1,984 total marathoners, 726th
out of 1,277 males, and 131st out of 228 in my age group.

Pumpkin Push 2003,
October 25, 2003. This year, the pumpkin push was an 8km course
(4.97 miles). I started way too fast (6:20 mile pace), and settled
down by mile 2. In the end, I finished at 36:02, which was a 7:23
pace. This put me at 18th out of 81 in my age group, 58th out of
230 males, and 74th out of 533 overall runners.

Royal Victoria Half
Marathon, October 12, 2003. About 8,000 people did either
the half or full marathon; it was a great crowd. I finished the
half marathon in 1:49:44, an 8:22/mile pace. This put me 796th out
of 3,680 total half marathon runners, 546th out of 1,334 males, and
109th out of 197 30-34 year old males. (writeup)

Seattle to Canada bicycle ride, September 22, 2003.
Paul and I tried to make it from Seattle to Vancouver by bike in
one day (about 160 mile ride). We started at 7am, made it across
the Canadian border to Surrey (the outskirts of Vancouver), and
called it a day at about 9pm, after 135 miles total.

Ironman Canada
2003, August 24, 2003. My first Ironman; my goal was to
finish, and I did, in 15 hours, 26 minutes, and 20 seconds. This
put me near the back of the pack, so there is plenty of opportunity
to improve next year. (writeup)

San Francisco to Santa Barbara bicycle ride,
May 22-26, 2002. Paul and I flew into San
Franciso on Thursday afternoon (May 22), and cycled from there
down to Santa Barbara, a total of 371 miles. We made about 30
miles to Half Moon Bay on Thursday, 95 miles to Monterey on Friday,
80 hilly miles to Ragged Point on Saturday, 75 miles to Grover Beach
on Sunday, and cruised about 95 miles to Santa Barbara on Monday.

2002

Pumpkin Push 5K run,
October 26, 2002. Getting faster; I did 20:39, which is a 6:39
minute/mile pace. I finished 9th out of 46 in my
age group, 35th out
of 229 males, and 39th out of 622 out of all 5K runners.

Multiple Myeloma
Research Foundation 5K run, July 20, 2002. Sunny and
I ran this race together. I kept an even pace throughout, and
finished in 21:36, which is a 6:58 minute/mile pace (much
faster than the dog dash last year).

Colorado Adventure
Training, May 24-26, 2002. To get back into the
adventure racing swing of things, I signed up for this 3-day
AR training course put on by team Eco-Internet, 8000 ft high
in Estes Park (near Boulder, CO). Unfortunately, I badly
sprained my ankle playing soccer the week before, and it was
still seriously swollen and sore by the time of the
camp. So, I went anyway. Good fun, but my ankle
forced me to skip the 20-hour race at the end.

2001

After a long hiatus from racing, it's time to get back into it. The
past year and a half has been intense, interviewing for a new
job, starting as an assistant professor at the University of
Washington, and learning how to adapt my schedule to the
"professorial life". The cost of this hiatus has been about an
extra 15 pounds of weight, and a big fitness hole out of which I am
starting to dig... ;)

The Dawg Dash
5K, October 13th, 2001. A good first run; Hank, Alon,
Larry A., Sunny, and I entered as "Team High
Bandwidth", defending the honor of the UW CSE Department.
My brain wanted to run faster than my body did, and I ended up
starting out way too fast, going completely anaerobic and
sucking wind for the last half of the run. I finished in 89th
place out of 607 runners with a time of 23:56, which is a 7:39
minutes/mile pace. This put me 46th out of 111 in my age
group. Our team finished 3rd out of 5 faculty teams, and 4th
out of all teams in general. We'll take it.

1999

The Sacramento Hi-Tech Adventure Race, August 29th,
1999. An excellent result - Paul, myself, and Tal did this
race. We finished in 3:46:45, which put us 12th out of 64
in the all male division, and which put us about 40th out of
around 260 overall. The temperatures soared to over 100
fahrenheit for this one; we all were really dehydrated by
the end of the race. The race involved a 6.5 mile hilly
trail run, 10 miles of pretty tough single-track mountain
biking, and about a mile of kayaking. Plus, there were some
"special tests" thrown in, like a miniature
orienteering course, doing marine hurdles with a kayak, and
bringing our mountain bikes over a 15 foot high cargo net.

Cal Eco Adventure Race #3, July 17th, 1999. This was the
best race of the year, by far and away. Once again, we didn't
quite finish this one - we had 2 miles of biking left to go, but
my knees were completely trashed and we had to stop after 19
hours of racing. Read all
about the race here.

Escape from
Alcatraz, June 5th, 1999. The swim absolutely
destroyed me on this race; I was out of the water in about
one hour and ten minutes, instead of the 46 minutes of 2
years ago. This year, the currents were nasty; I somehow
got trapped in an eddy current right next to the island, and
I was literally stuck in the same spot (10 feet from
Alcatraz's shore) for over 20 minutes trying to get away.
Eventually I did, but I was so tired and mildly hypothermic
that the rest of the swim went at a slower pace than it
should have. After the swim, however, the race went great -
I was passing people all over the pace on the bike ride, and
held my own nicely during the run. After the race, the
sniffle I had going into it turned into a full-blown cold
complete with fever and cough; I guess I abused my immune
system a little too much during that swim.

Cal Eco Adventure Race #2, May 22nd, 1999. Another fun
race, although my team dnf'ed on this one too. The race involved
about 8 hours of night-time orienteering, followed by 3 hours of
mountain biking, 7 hours of open-sea kayaking, and another 2-3
hours of mountain biking. We never made it past the
orienteering; our route choices were poor. Although we never
got lost, we ran into a dead-end trying to make our way up a
river valley up to a ridge on top; the vegetation was too think
and impassable near the top, so it took us about 3 hours to hit a
dead end, and 3 more hours to extricate ourselves, by which time
we were dead-tired, scraped up, and way behind the rest of the
racers. Great fun...

Wildflower Half-Ironman, May 1st, 1999. Excellent race -
1.2 mile swim, 55 mile brutal brutal road bike course in
blistering sun and crazy hills, then 13 mile run to the finish.
I dnf'ed, though; feeling my knees starting to give after 2 miles
or so of the run, I decided discretion was the better part of
valour and that I'd hobble back to the finish line instead of
running the rest of the race. :(

Monterey Midnight Madness, April 1999. Another crazy
adventure racing practice. We began at midnight on a Friday, did
4 hours of orienteering on foot, 4-5 hours of mountain biking, 4
hours of Kayaking, then 3 hours of mountain biking to get back to
the start. I bonked after the Kayaking, and needed to get a lift
back. Paul, Ivry, and Matthew finished by 4pm, so they did 16
hours of racing.

Pacheco Midnight Madness, March 1999. Time to get
serious about adventure racing...this practice race began at
midnight on a Friday, and involved 3-4 hours of orienteering, and
4-6 hours of mountain biking (also while orienteering, of
course). Paul, Eduardo, and I finished up in 9 hours or so, and
then drove home to go catatonic.

1998

The Napa Valley Half-Marathon, October 31st, 1998. This was
an exceptionally gruelling half-marathon, including roughly 2000
feet of uninterrupted climbing for the first 5 miles. The top
place time was 1:36:03. I placed 29th out of 135, with a time of
2:01:59, which is pretty pleasing, since my knee was so trashed
at the end of the race that I couldn't bend it. (Stupid ITB band.)

The
LA Hi-Tech
Adventure Race, October 24th, 1998. More of the same like
Sacramento, but this time we got to be yelled at by marines, see
a bunch of paratroopers land on our beach in formation, and other
wild stuff.

The Big Sur Ride, September
20-21st, 1997. This was a 170-mile, 11,000+ foot 2 day group
ride along the coast of California south of Carmel, and then
looping inwards back to the Carmel Valley. This wasn't a race,
but it was an incredibly fun ride. Check out my
writeup of the ride.

The Triathlon at Pacific
Grove, September 13th, 1997, Olympic distance. These
results are the first 175 out of 360 male finishers. I placed
141st out of 360 in the male age group categories, finishing 14th
in my age group, and 155th overall out of 463 in the race. My
swim rocked - I've got to work on my running now. If only my
knees would heal!

San Jose
International, June 29th, 1997, Olympic distance.
These results are male age group (14th out of 29); I placed
276th out of 809 overall. This is one of the first races in
which I really hammered on the swim. I also survived a
nasty bee sting during the bike ride..

Escape From
Alcatraz, June 1st, 1997. 1.5 mile (from Alcatraz
to the mainland) / 18 mile / 8 mile (1 mile of which is
along sand). I placed 192nd out of 404 finishers, or 13th
out of 18 in my age group. Gotta improve my swimming - I
was lagging pace by about 10-15 minutes!

Wildflower,
May 4th, 1997, Collegiate championship Olympic
distance. (Click here for
the overall Olympic distance results to compare against the
rest of the competitors.) This was the first race of the
season for me; I came in 102nd out of 134 in the collegiate
championships, and that put me at about 300th out of the 800
overall competitors. Splits aren't on here - I was equally
slow on all three legs, I'd have to say. Not bad for the
first of the season, but definite room for improvement
exists.